Five up-and-coming startups will also have the chance to compete in a pitchfest for a $25,000 prize with more than $100,000 worth of in-kind professional services from sponsoring companies. Competing this year are Spoonity, BotMock, Back-Bone Gear, AirShare and IRYSTEC.

This year’s iteration is the fifth installment of TiECon Canada, and coincides with a few significant anniversaries: TiE Ottawa’s 15-year anniversary and Canada’s sesquicentennial celebrations.

Bharat Rudra, president of TiE Ottawa, told Techopia Live about how the organization got its start. Fifteen years ago, the founders saw a lack of mentoring and “giving back” in Ottawa’s tech sector that they believed could be remedied by a local TiE chapter.

“Going back and helping others, creating an environment where you’re received with open arms … We do know that we’ve brought part of that culture to Ottawa. And we’re proud of it,” Rudra told Techopia Live.

In the chapter’s early years, the group would organize road trips down to Boston to participate in their TiECon event. A few years in, Rudra says they realized that what would really benefit the city would be bringing the event to Ottawa.

To honour Canada’s 150th anniversary, Rudra says the organization has put together a special video with a diverse cross-section of the country’s entrepreneurs. More than 100 entrepreneurs of every age, ethnicity, creed, both successes and failures, contributed their messages in a video that will be unveiled on TiECon Canada’s first evening.